The greatest get together! Fun in the sun as Yorkshire unites in memory of Jo Cox

Picnic time at Brodsworth Hall.

Published:16:03Saturday 17 June 2017

Communities across Yorkshire and the rest of the country were celebrating hope, love and unity today in memory of murdered MP Jo Cox.

Tens of thousands of events are taking place as part of the Great Get Together, organised to mark the first anniversary of Mrs Cox’s death.

Tabitha Harlow at a street party in Burley, Leeds.

Events in Yorkshire today included a street party in Burley, Leeds, and a coffee morning at Gomersal Library.

Get-togethers were also scheduled for Batley Market Square, All Saints CE Primary School in Little Horton, Bradford, and Rotherham’s Clifton Park, to name just a few.

There was plenty of fun in the sun, too, for families at Brodsworth Hall and Gardens, near Doncaster.

Speaking at a celebration in the centre of Heckmondwike, Mrs Cox’s widower, Brendan, said: “When we first thought about this we were thinking of just bringing some people together.

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“We didn’t think it would have anything like the scale and the traction that it’s had. We’ve been awed by it.

“I think we’ve had well over 100,000 events with millions of people taking part in the weekend.

“And we got the weather for it, which is a good thing to be able to say.”

Scotland’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, spoke at a tea party at Glasgow Women’s Library and urged people not to let the actions of a minority intent on sowing division demonise whole communities.

She told attendees: “Jo’s maiden speech in the House of Commons had that memorable phrase ‘we have more in common than anything that divides us’, so that’s a pretty good principle for all of us to try and live our lives by.”

The Great Get Together continues tomorrow, when one of the stand-out events will see rugby league fans getting free admission as Batley Bulldogs play host to Sheffield Eagles at the Fox’s Biscuits Stadium.

Batley & Spen MP Mrs Cox was shot and stabbed in the centre of Birstall on June 16 last year.

Flowers in her memory were laid in the village this weekend, with one bearing a note that said: “God bless Jo and all her family.”